9th Ave: Miah Jeffra with Kai Harris

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 - 7:00pm

Cover of Miah Jeffra's American Gospel. The cover is a photo of a gray-blue scale, with a brownstone tenement building in the middle center, standing lone next to some trees bare from winter. The title is written in white letters at the top of the cover in the sky, and the author's name is written in the same letters below the building.
Join us on Tuesday, March 21 at 7pm PT when Miah Jeffra celebrates their novel, American Gospel, with Kai Harris at 9th Ave!

Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/9hk1qFitDcc?feature=share

Praise for American Gospel
"Equal parts tender and fierce, Miah Jeffra’s American Gospel is an uncompromising portrait of Baltimore and the people who call it home—a portrait framed by three finely wrought characters whose voices converge into a vibrant polyphony that reminds us of the inherent beauty in our brokenness."—Zak Salih

"A moving triptych of a city in metamorphosis, and the three lives that are altered—hauntingly, tenderly, violently—by these changes. American Gospel is the story of Baltimore, and of how the places we call home are both our sorrow and our salvation."—Shobha Rao

"With three rich characters as his threads, Miah Jeffra weaves a flawless tapestry of a community about to be obliterated, capturing the lives of three people who are caught up in the sweep of change. They are a desperate mother, a bitter son, a doubtful priest, and the portraits Jeffra draws are wonderfully composed. His writing is sharp and powerful. His vision of the world is exact. Here is a novel worthy of everyone’s notice. A treasure."—Jim Grimsely

About American Gospel
A low-income Baltimore neighborhood is targeted for a controversial urban renewal project—an amusement park in the theme of Baltimore itself—that forces its residents to reckon with racism, displacement, and their futures. Peter Cryer is a queer teenager who fantasizes about leaving Baltimore and the instability of his home life while also seeking a place to belong. Ruth Anne, his prickly mother, is terrorized by her estranged husband and the indecision of what to do after the wrecking ball comes through her neighborhood. Thomas, a cleric and History teacher at Peter’s school, questions his vocation in the face of the neighborhood’s destruction. These three voices braid together a portrait of a neighborhood in flux, the role of community and violence in our time, and the struggles of a very real and oft misunderstood city.

About Miah Jeffra
Miah Jeffra is author of four books, most recently The Violence Almanac and the forthcoming novel American Gospel. Work can be seen in StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, The North American Review, Barrelhouse, DIAGRAM, jubilat and many others. Miah is co-founder of Whiting Award-winning queer and trans literary collaborative, Foglifter Press, and teaches writing and decolonial studies at Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University.

About Kai Harris
Dr. Kai Harris
is a writer and educator from Detroit, Michigan, whose critically acclaimed debut novel, What the Fireflies Knew, is a Marie Claire Book Club pick, longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author. Kai’s writing, which centers on the Black experience, has appeared in Guernica, Lit Hub, Kweli Journal, Longform, and the Hilltop Review, amongst others. In addition to fiction, Kai has published poetry, personal essays, and peer-reviewed academic articles on topics related to Black girlhood and womanhood, the slave narrative genre, and Black identity. Kai resides in the Bay Area where she is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Santa Clara University. Follow Kai on social @authorkaiharris for a healthy dose of #blackgirlmagic. Read more at kaiharriswrites.com

 

American Gospel By Miah Jeffra Cover Image
$25.95
ISBN: 9781625570437
Availability: NOT on our shelves now. Usually ships from warehouse in several days.
Published: Black Lawrence Press - March 24th, 2023

A low-income Baltimore neighborhood is targeted for a controversial urban renewal project--an amusement park in the theme of Baltimore itself--that forces its residents to reckon with racism, displacement, and their futures. Peter Cryer is a queer teenager who fantasizes about leaving Baltimore and the instability of his home life while also seeking a place to belong.


What the Fireflies Knew: A Novel By Kai Harris Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593185360
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Tiny Reparations Books - February 7th, 2023

An NAACP Image Award Nominee
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize
A Marie Claire Book Club pick

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by *Marie Claire* *Teen Vogue* *Buzzfeed* *Essence* *Ms. Magazine* *NBCNews.com* *Bookriot* *Bookbub* and more! 


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